NEW YORK — Pope Francis embraced survivors of 9/11 in the footprints of the Twin Towers, then prayed for peace at an interfaith service beside the last column of steel salvaged from the fallen skyscrapers.
Arriving straight from his speech to the United Nations on Friday (Sept. 25), Francis met with families from the 9/11 community — people who survived the destruction, rescued others from the inferno, or lost loved ones in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, executed by religious zealots.
During the interfaith service, Imam Khalid Latif and Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, both of New York, alternated words of peace. More pairs followed: two Hindu women, two Buddhists, two Muslims, a Sikh father and daughter and a Protestant and Orthodox Christian. Some spoke in English, some in their native languages. The pope sat in the middle and followed along in his program.